The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 214

SPORTS Page 1 4 Tuesday, July 1 1 2006 The Register's Iowa Weekly BRINGING BASEBALL TO INNER CITY Kids are on the ball in the city this summer Want to watch the Hawkeyes on TV? Well, it will cost you Mike Wilson has seen the future of sports on television. It's your checkbook. Wilson is the general manager at KDSM, Channel 17, Des Moines' Fox affiliate. KDSM serves as the local provider for "ESPN-Plus," which airs the Big Ten Conference's popular syndicated package. He figures prime-time Hawkeye basketball on Channel 17 brings in 75,000 to 100,000 mi jaw ii They learn to hit, pitch, get along ate i if viewers per game.

"There are as many people who watch Iowa basketball games KM SeankEELFR i Vfc. By DAN McCOOL REGISTER STAFF WRITER Cody Park still is figuring out the game of baseball, but then again he's only 9 years old. The bright-eyed kid whose legs are skinnier than the barrel of the aluminum bat he swings seems to have the mental part of the game down, however. As he sat in a dugout at Brian Melton Park in Des Moines, Cody uncorked a plan for his next trip to the plate. "If I get to bat again, I'm going to knock this ball out of the park," he said.

Another dream on another night of One Way to Play, a program that helps inner-city kids learn the fundamentals of baseball. The Fellowship of Christian Athletes puts on the clinics, with equipment and facilities assistance from the Iowa Cubs. The field at Melton Park and another at Martin Luther King Park were built by the Cubs to make the game available to youths who previously had no chance to play. Iowa Cubs general manager Sam Bernabe said he pitched a dream for those fields to Ken Grandquist. the former majority owner of the Cubs.

The plan grew even after Grandquist died in 1999. "Whether we do clinics or stuff on them or not is immaterial," Bernabe said. "The diamond is what's important, so if a kid gets a bat. a ball and a glove for his birthday, he's got someplace to go and as watch 'American he says. "Believe me, we walk that tightrope." Since 1997, 38 percent of Iowa's football games have appeared on ESPN-Plus.

As of August 2007, it's a good bet those games are headed to the Big Ten's new premium channel. During the past three men's basketball seasons, 63 of the Hawkeyes' 94 games 67 percent were televised as part of the ESPN-Plus weekday or weekend package. Of the 55 Big Ten conference and conference tournament games, 40 or 73 percent were syndicated. Most of those games are going over to The Big Ten Channel, too. What used to be free is now coming with a sticker price.

Welcome to sports broadcasting in the 21st century. The marquee events the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Final Four. etc. remain on free, "over-the-air" networks. Everything else gets shipped off to pay-per-view.

That financial windfall for the University of Iowa, the extra S7.5 million coming Continued on Page 16 wi' knock it around with his bud-Contmued on Page 15 Volunteer instructor Steve Mohr watches Ciantae Carter's throwing technique uumig a vjne way 10 iay tunic, nicn neipea ues Moines kids learn baseball..